Sports of The Times; The 'Animal' In Mike Tyson

By IRA BERKOW

Published: February 11, 1992

THIS is what Mike Tyson once said about himself in an interview about five years ago:

"When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out his heart and show it to him. My manager tells me not to say those things, but that's the way I feel. People say that's primitive, that I'm an animal. But then they pay $500 to see it. There's so much hypocrisy in the world.

I never liked sports. Sports are only social events. What I do is an obsession. If I wasn't in boxing, I'd be breaking the law. That's my nature."

Apparently, his nature had an even deeper, more malevolent side. Last night a jury in Indianapolis, after hearing testimony for two weeks and deliberating for nearly 10 hours, found Mike Tyson, in a stunning verdict, guilty of rape and two counts of criminal deviant behavior.

He could go to prison for up to 60 years, though there was speculation he may get only 7 when he is sentenced on March 6. That's some "only."

Here is a man earning as much as almost any other man in the world, something like $100 million a year. Here is a man who came from a tough background, pulled himself up, made himself an adored champion of the world, and none of that was enough.

He had to continue now, in fancy suits, being just what he was on those Brooklyn streets when he was growing up: a punk.

He had come out of the Brownsville section, spent time in reform school, and then became the heavyweight champion at age 20. He lost the title two years ago, but had been scheduled soon to fight the current champion, Evander Holyfield, in a title bout. It would have earned him millions more. Now there will be no such fight.

The world had stood and cheered Iron Mike Tyson, and showered him with adulation and money. It wasn't enough.

The defense in the rape trial took the position that their man was a lecher, a jerk, a grabber, a callous, out-for-one-thing thug. But the young woman, it said, knowing all this, still went to his room at 2 in the morning, sat on his bed -- for what, asked the defense attorney, "to watch television?" -- and consented to have sex with this famous and infamous personality.

The prosecution said he was all those things the defense said he was, and one thing more: a rapist. She was naive, said the prosecution, even bringing a camera along with her to photograph the other famous people that Tyson was going to introduce her to that night. She was enticed up to his room because he said he had forgotten something. He seemed a gentleman. So, no harm.

Each side brought in witnesses, including the only two people who truly knew what happened, the former heavyweight champion and the beauty pageant contestant. Each side had 25 witnesses, and it seemed from the reports that 50 per cent of them were lying. The question for the jury was, which side?

One never knows from reading news accounts, or hearing those accounts on television, just how credible any of the witnesses are, and how the evidence is being presented. No one knows just what is going on in the heads of the jury -- in this case, the nine white and three black men and women.

Now we know. They bought none of the Tyson story, none of the interpretations of the 25 witnesses for the defense.

None of Tyson's crude behavior surprised those who have spent much time around him. In recent years, as he grew richer and more prominent as a boxer, he grew bolder, acting as if the rules of society did not apply to him. He seemed to feel he could do or say anything that came into his mind, at any time. And people would, if not love him for it, accept him for it.

As years passed, it seemed he was becoming more out of control. There were charges of sexual harassment, and one conviction, and various public incidents in which he acted like a bully and common thug, even getting into a late-night street fight with another boxer.

Approaching the trial, some bizarre things happened that added credence to this strange life style. One of the beauty pageant's sponsors, who had sought to sue Tyson, and had called him "a serial buttocks fondler," then had second thoughts, and dropped the whole suit idea.

"I don't want to be part of an attempt to crucify a black role model," he said.

Some role model, black or white.

Now Mike Tyson has been removed from the public stage. "I don't need anyone," he once said. "All I have to do is win. As long as I win, I'm fine."

What Mike Tyson has never understood was that only until he stopped acting like an animal outside the ring would he be fine.

The state of Indiana will now give him a long time to rethink his philosophy.